Malik Williams had voluntarily turned himself into police on Dec. 10 and was being booked on domestic assault charges when he fled out of the back door of the station, sparking a pursuit. Town police, aided by a Bergen County K-9 unit, tracked him to a residential garage on Dahnert Park Lane.

Police say when they opened the garage door, Williams had armed himself with tools.

"Upon encountering Williams with the tools in his hands, the police officers fired at Williams, striking him numerous times," Prosecutor John Molinelli said in a statement.

But key details — such as what kind of tools Williams allegedly armed himself with, or the names of the officers involved — remain unknown, and some activists say investigators are being unnecessarily secretive.

"What we have been seeing around the state and around the nation, as soon as the police officer has been involved, the name has been revealed," Emiliano Lemos, an activist with the Latino Action Network, told NJ.com. "They waited a couple of days, but the public had the knowledge."

Prosecutor Molinelli has not responded to repeated requests for an interview since the incident occurred.

At the first demonstration on Dec. 23, Garfield Mayor Frank J. Calandriello met protesters at the Garfield police station, and joined by City Councilor Louis G. Aloia, followed them to the home where Williams was killed. He urged them to "let the process work its way through."

"We can not reverse what we have seen and what has happened, but we need as a community to put our efforts together, to try to work so that items like that will never happen again," Calandriello said.

Calandriello said he and other town leaders met with law enforcement, the Williams family and members of the clergy shortly after the shooting. Rev. Arthur Bryant of Friendship Baptist Church of Garfield attended those meetings and described them as "productive" in a recent interview with NJ.com.

Bryant said further meetings are planned, but has echoed statements from the mayor and members of the local NAACP urging protesters not to jump to conclusions before the results of the investigation are made public.

"The city is working along with us and they're trying to do what's best for the community, because at the end of the day, we have to live in the community as a diverse people," Bryant said.

Demonstrators gather in GarfieldSupporters of Malik Williams, a Garfield man killed in a confrontation with police after he fled the police station, demonstrate on January 7. | Video by S.P. Sullivan, NJ.com